Kaw Valley Almanac

Here is a wide angle sunset photo taken on the winter solstice, when the sun is as far south on the horizon as it will get. The horizon point of sunset/sunrise will slowly start moving north.

This immature redtailed hawk has perched on an eastern red cedar branch, looking for a rabbit or rodent to eat. The leafless trees make it harder for animals to hide, but also easier to see predators.

Probably goose down, this miraculous feather helped a goose keep its temperature a toasty 104 degrees while floating in water on a subfeezing day.

The prickly pear cactus reduces its water content, dehydrating to get through the cold and survive even subzero temperatures. Mosses “bloom” in wintertime, using limited moisture and can use the sunlight even through the snow.

Wahoo seed clusters provide brilliant red surprises in area woodlands this time of year. They are edible to birds but poisonous to humans.

This sunset photo shows the silhouette of leafless trees under geese flying south. Leaf fall from most trees has made it easier to see wildlife and things further away than you can see other times of the year.

Apioperdon pyriforme is the only puffball mushroom found in Kansas that lives on wood; other puffball mushrooms can also be found in prairies and woodland edges this time of year.

Recent winds and rains have caused many lingering leaves to fall, and though it looks like these elms have some lingering leaves on their tops, it’s actually a flock of blackbirds!

Many leaves have been slow to fall. Trees weaken the link between next year’s bud and this year’s leaf, but they need moisture to swell that space and pop the leaf off the tree.

Maple leaves are starting to fall and, while colorful, are at times almost pastel because of the dry, sunny skies that have almost bleached them before they fell.

This photo of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS was taken Sunday an hour after sunset, with a band of smoke from Wyoming wildfires right underneath.

Smooth aster is a purple and yellow late-blooming prairie wildflower that late pollinators, especially butterflies, are drawn to.

This eastern orb weaver’s is one of many spiderwebs found spanning trails this time of the year.

Sumac is one of the first leaves to shut down the green chlorophyll, leaving the red anthocyanin pigment that extends its ability to create glucose in the shorter days.

The dry weather is taking a toll on many plants and trees, but it has created ideal conditions for one of the most beautiful prairie wildflowers: the gentian.